Adam Clayton will be hoping Huddersfield Town can push on again next season (Picture: Getty Images)

In the blink of an eye, Huddersfield Town’s season draws to a close. There have been ups and there have been a few downs but the question on many fans’ lips is has there been progress?

Town may not have finished with as many points as last term but I believe we have moved forward not just as a team but as a club.

As a team we have been harder to beat, losing by lower margins and improving our goal difference and at the start of the season I would’ve been extremely happy finishing mid-table. If we were blessed with good fortune we might have been competing for a playoff spot but it wasn’t to be.

To use an old football cliche, it was a season of two halves.

The first half of the season, we played attractive attacking football, had purpose in possession and played with an air of confidence. We played football that brought the best out of players like Oliver Norwood and Jonathan Hogg.

We created our own rules and played with a 3-5-2 formation that has rarely been seen since the late nineties. Possession was the key to our success, with sharp passing and quick movement off the ball.

The tidal wave of misfortune struck when James Vaughan was sent off in October against Leicester and struggled to maintain injury-free on his return. We missed a replacement for his cut and thrust. Joel Lynch was soon to follow with a period on the physio’s table.

With just two injuries, the pace in our team soon dissipated. Manager Mark Robins stuck to his guns and continued to play the possession game but without Vaughan and Lynch the team lost the impetus we once had in abundance.

We were slow to create attacks and sluggish off the ball. Without the tempo we struggled to catch the opposition flat-footed.

The infrastructure of the club has shown much promise with our academy team being crowned champions of Under-18 League 2 North and Huddersfield Town Ladies winning the Northern Women’s Combination League.

The Under-21s almost followed suit by reaching the play-off semi-final of League Two.

Success breeds success and starting from the bottom up is not a bad way to go.

Town don’t have the largest fan base in the division but we’ve continued to engage with the local community and develop commercial partnerships, growing our off-field revenue streams to compensate.

If we can play the way we played in the first half of the season we will get more nationwide exposure as a club and more bums on seats.

For us to improve again next season we need the resolve to overcome teams when we concede first.

We need to be more efficient at set-pieces and have to adapt how we try and win games. In addition, we need to make better use of the loan market where short term improvement in the quality of players will reap longer term benefits.

Darwen did not theorise about the evolution of man based on continued success, but on man’s ability to learn from failures and adapt to our environment.

I believe in everyone at the club and I believe we will improve again next term.